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EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2000

A feminist ties the knot

A lot of fun has been had this month at the expense of longtime American feminist icon Gloria Steinem. After decades of pointing out the drawbacks of marriage, the 66-year-old Ms. Steinem recently surprised and titillated the world by going off and getting married.
COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2000

Harry Potter in the Middle Kingdom

BEIJING -- He's your average, 11-year-old Muggle. An only child, prone to mischief whenever possible, he prefers computer games to books. Or at least he did, until he became a guinea pig for 300 million other children.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Greenhouse gas output declines

Emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases dropped 3.5 percent to the carbon equivalent of 1.336 billion tons in fiscal 1998 from the previous year, according to an Environment Agency report released Friday.
OLYMPICS
Sep 23, 2000

Shinohara loses in controversy

SYDNEY -- Was he robbed? Reigning world champion Shinichi Shinohara thought so, standing on the mat in protest at the judge's decision to award defending Olympic champion David Douillet a "yuko" that won him the Olympic gold medal in the over-100-kg class at the Sydney Exhibition Center on Friday night....
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2000

Toyota ups forecast after sales kick

Toyota Motor Corp. revised its unconsolidated earnings projections for the first half of fiscal 2000 upward due to brisk sales of its vehicles in domestic and overseas markets, company officials said Friday.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 23, 2000

Stopped in my flippin' tracks by a Shino tea bowl

I'm lucky enough to live only five minutes away from one of my favorite Mino potters -- and I don't even live near the Mino area. That's in Gifu Prefecture, whereas I reside in the potting wasteland of Numazu. I'm always asked about how I ended up here and I can only say that it was the will of something...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

10 trillion yen stimulus package ordered

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday formally ordered the government to draft a 10 trillion yen economic stimulus package that will include an extra budget of nearly 4 trillion yen for the current fiscal year.
COMMUNITY
Sep 21, 2000

Hanae Mori's gems shine brightly

Let's begin with the keywords: graceful, feminine, sharp, inspired.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Sep 21, 2000

The healing power of ginger

This is a good time of year to bring out the ginger. As we move into autumn and the days get shorter and the air cooler, ginger is a great way to replace sunshine and summer heat and warm things up a bit. I've written about ginger before, but like a few other special classics in the botanical medicine...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2000

Taiwan is worthy of a place in the U.N.

The United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York, attended by about 150 heads of state and governments earlier this month, pledged to make globalization a positive force for all the people of the world. It published a list of central values for 21st-century international relations. It also admitted...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

NEC to spend $150 million on U.S. phone technology

NEC Corp. said Monday that it will invest $150 million over the next two years in the development of next-generation mobile phone technologies to be marketed in North America.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 19, 2000

Rockin' without fear or favor

I'm often asked what kind of misfits bother writing to Fuzzy Logic and what they say and as I'm busy lying on a beach in Thailand -- having my toes sucked by a bunch of cherry-lipped ladyboys while sipping a sexy cocktail and sucking on a big fat exotic stoogie -- I've decided to give you a few examples...
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2000

Dispute defies quick solution

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed in their recent Tokyo summit to resolve the bilateral territorial dispute over the Northern Territories, stirring mixed reactions in the two countries. Although they agreed to continue peace-treaty talks toward the yearend deadline,...
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 19, 2000

Heirs toddle onstage to pass torch of Utaemon

During the month of September, the Kabukiza in Tokyo is presenting a special program comprising four well-known plays and two famous dance numbers in memory of Utaemon Nakamura V, the onnagata actor who died in 1940 at the age of 75.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2000

Police to plant cameras at perilous intersections

Police plan to install video cameras at about 350 accident-prone intersections across Japan beginning in April to help police investigate collisions at the spots, the National Police Agency said.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Ikuno pitches kimchi for World Cup

OSAKA -- While the nation is gripped by Olympic fever, Shigemitsu Nishihara in Ikuno Ward here is looking forward to the 2002 World Cup to be cohosted by Japan and South Korea as an event to boost bilateral relations and to promote his hometown.
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2000

What about the foreign residents?

Japan now has a record 1.55 million registered foreign residents, representing 1.23 percent of the population. These entirely legal residents are still being given short shrift in government planning, such as disaster-prevention and relief measures. It is two weeks since the nation as a whole -- nearly...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Sep 17, 2000

Tokyo poets get a night out to Howl

Howl, the bar in Aoyama, was founded just after Allen Ginsberg's death in 1997.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Wealthy seniors should pay social security: panel

A private advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has proposed that the government force better-off retirees to pay into social security again to prevent the system from collapsing and to ease the growing burden on younger, working people.
SUMO
Sep 16, 2000

Former sekiwake Mitoizumi retires

Former sekiwake Mitoizumi of the Takasago stable decided Friday to step down from the ring after posting a 1-11 record in the second-tier juryo division at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Dentist patents false teeth with chip identifying wearer

OSAKA -- An Osaka dentist has received Japanese and U.S. patents for a set of false teeth containing a tiny microchip that identifies its wearer.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Porcelain design echoes Japan

It's not difficult to understand the influence of Japanese ceramics on famed British chinaware producer Royal Crown Derby.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Spy affair may prevent Russian colonel's visit

A visit to Japan by Col. Gen. Yuri Burkeyev, commander in chief of the Russian Ground Forces, may be postponed in the wake of last week's arrest of a Maritime Self-Defense Force officer on charges of spying for a Russian Embassy official in Tokyo, according to Defense Agency sources.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 14, 2000

World Cup 2002 tickets to sell Oct. 2

Tickets reserved for residents of Japan for the 2002 World Cup will start selling Oct. 2 after a computer draw selects who can buy them, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) announced Wednesday.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2000

Bruised flowers: China's hidden army of child laborers

BEIJING -- Hu Changjun was desperate to escape the poverty trap in Wuxi County in southwest China's Sichuan Province. So she couldn't believe her luck when a fellow villager named Changyan offered her work at a joint-venture factory in distant Beijing. "A joint venture means a foreign company, where...
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 14, 2000

Fisheries crashing from pollution in Ariake

The cuisine of the Ariake Sea in northern Kyushu, featured recently in quarterly cultural magazine Fukuoka Style, is a strange one. It's dominated by grotesque, unusual-tasting fish and shellfish simmered heavily in sugar and soy or wrapped in dense layers of seaweed.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 14, 2000

Hatsu-nomikiri still a summer ritual for brewers

Sake breweries are usually fairly quiet in the summer. Except for the few large breweries where brewing continues all year, most places are dark and quiet and empty, as the brewers themselves have gone home for the summer. Traditionally, the kurabito (brewers) traveled great distances from their rural...
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2000

Parties agree supplementary budget is needed

Senior officials of the government and the ruling coalition on Tuesday agreed on the need to draw up a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2000

U.S. bases to preserve environment

The United States and Japan have reached an agreement obligating U.S. military bases in Japan to preserve the environment, government sources said.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past